Electronics and Programming Guides

September 01, 2022 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: About 1 minute

Discover helpful and inciteful tips that you can use in your electronics and programming projects. We are focused on home-brew electronics, specifically for home automation. We like to use MQTT, Home Assistant, Node-RED, and Zigbee along with Node MCU and Arduino. With this combination of electronics and programming, you can automate anything.

We share some information about electronics fundamentals as well as knowledge about more advanced topics in electronics. It is very helpful to learn fundamentals such as Ohm's Law and resister networks when you are building home automation circuits.

Here you can find guides and articles with creative ideas, tips, and advice about programming, electronics, and home automation.

When you mix programming and electronics together you get fun.

EFUNDIES.com currently provides articles and guides related to electronics and programming. When our site update is complete, we plan to offer source code collaboration. We will also be adding guides and articles about home automation, so check in often to see our new projects.

More from Efundies

How to Read a Schematic - Common Schematic Symbols

There are about 10 that you should memorize, and the rest you can look up. Here we will show you some common schematic symbols and give a brief description of them.

This modern LED lightbulb consumes 1/10th the energy of old-school incandescent bulbs.

Electricity

Follow our electricity guides to learn how to read your power meter, save energy, and measure the power usage of various devices in your home.

Analog power meter reading

How to Read Your Power Meter

Learn how to read your power meter and measure the energy consumption of various devices in your home.

MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 2

This is part 2 in a 3 part series that shows how to make Ableton Live play music on electric solenoids using an Arduino.

How to Darken an Image in C#

In order to darken an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and decrease it's red, green, and blue values.

C#: How to Use HTML Colors in Your Code

The .Net framework has a great object for dealing with colors called Color that we use to deal with HTML color codes.

How to Implement AVR Timer Interrupts in C for Atmel Microcontrollers

Timer interrupts are an excellent way of having your AVR do something at a given interval.

An MQTT broker helps glue your home automation systems together.

How To Choose an MQTT Broker: Mosquitto vs HiveMQ vs Home Assistant

When it comes time to choose an MQTT broker, you have a few choices. Let's check out the pros and cons of Mosquitto, HiveMQ, and Home Assistant's built-in MQTT broker.

If you have to move massive amounts of data, then you should be thinking about Robocopy and rsync.

How to Move Massive Amounts of Data Safely and Efficiently

If you're dealing with a large amount of data, you need to make sure you're moving it safely and efficiently. Here are some tips on how to do just that.

5 Reasons You Should be Using Docker for Home Automation

If you are not using Docker on your home automation server, then it's time to start thinking about it.

How to Understand Electronics Signals and Flow for Beginners

Signals and Systems is a common term that is used to refer to system design.

AVR Port Input in C

### Connect PortB To Switches Remember how we connected **PORTA** to the **LEDS**. Now we are going to connect **PORTB** to the **SWITCHES**.

Learning Linux will help you with many different home automation projects.

Linux

When you get interested in home automation, you are eventually going to want to learn Linux.

Mosquitto is one of the most popular open source MQTT brokers.

How To Set Up An MQTT Broker with Mosquitto

There are a few options to get your MQTT broker up and running, including Dockers and bare-metal installations. Let's talk about some of the most common ways to get your MQTT broker ready to go.

Load an Image in C#

- Perhaps you want to create an image processing program. - You may need to resize or rescale an image.

There are many different Arduinos to choose from, such as this Uno variety.

Arduino

Many home automation projects can be solved by simply "throwing an Arduino at it". Our Arduino articles show you how.

You can get started programming with a simple setup. All it takes is a laptop and a cup of coffee.

Programming: Tips and Tricks

A collection of tips, tricks, and snippets of code for a variety of programming languages, including C#, AVR, Arduino, and Perl.

AVR chips come in many different sizes and shapes. Pictured is a PLCC socket.

AVR

The AVR microprocessor is the heart of most Arduinos. Instead of using the Arduino libraries, you can learn to program this chip directly with C++.

MQTT is the backbone of many home automation systems.

MQTT

MQTT is the backbone of many home automation systems. We consider MQTT to be the most important part of your home automation system.

Electronics topics include chips, capacitors, resistors, transistors, and building circuit boards.

Electronics

Our collection of electronics articles helps you get started in home automation and circuit building.

How to Select the Right Resistor for Your Circuit: A Fundamentals Guide

The most important component to understand in electronics is the resistor.

MQTT is the easiest way to get IoT devices communicating.

What is MQTT and Why You Need It (How to Automate Anything)

MQTT is a protocol that allows devices to communicate with each other in a simple and efficient way.

How to Create a WinAVR C Skeleton File

If you are New To C then you can consider this a crash course introduction to the language.

How To Read Schematics

Those pictures are called a schematic. A schematic is a picture representation of what we are talking about in electronics.

C# Switch

A switch statement in C# is a great way to switch between options.

Personal binary executable directory

Make a Personal Binary Directory on Your Computer

If you want to keep your computer organized, it's a good idea to create a personal binary directory.

C# is a programming language created by Microsoft as a direct competitor to Java.

C# (C-Sharp) Programming Language - Tutorials, Code Examples, and More

C# is an amazing language that is built for speed and fast development time. Learn how to manipulate images with C#.

Some common components include capacitors and resistors, as well as transistors, LED displays, and chips.

Electronics Fundamentals

Learn all about resistors, capacitors, and transistors in our collection of Electronics Fundamentals articles.

How To Quickly Create a OneNote Page from the Command Line

OneNote is a great tool for organizing your thoughts and keeping track of your work, and you can create a OneNote page directly from the command line.

How to Replace A Color in an Image with C#

Sometimes you need to replace one color in an image with another color. C# makes it easy.

How to Lighten an Image in C#

In order to lighten an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and increase it's red, green, and blue values.

Scale an Image in C# Preserving Aspect Ratio

If you need to change the size of an Image without changing the ratio of X to Y then this article tells you how.

What are Transistors and How do They Work?

With the transistor we introduce the first 3 legged device. Transistors come in many varieties, shapes and sizes.

AVR microcontroler with printf function

AVR and printf

You should leave your STK500 setup exactly the same as it was setup for a previous guide.

Your home automation server can run many different operating systems, including Ubuntu, Proxmox, Unraid, and TrueNAS.

Unraid vs Proxmox vs Ubuntu - Battle For the Best Home Network Server OS

When it comes time to put an operating system on your home network server, you've got a few options.

C# Color Object

Once you have a Color object you can easily get the RGB and HSB values out of it.

If you want to conIf you want to connect to your MQTT broker from the internet, then you need to forward a port in your router.

Connect to Your MQTT Broker from the Internet: Port Forwarding MQTT

If you want to connect to your MQTT broker from the internet, then you need to forward a port in your router

How to compile ncmpcpp on CentOs 8

If you are new to compiling applications on Linux then this can be a bit daunting the first time you do it.

Command line interface

Command Line Interface

Command line interface (CLI) is a text-based interface that is used to operate computer systems.

Docker is an essential service on your home automation server

Install Docker on Your Home Automation Server: 4 Different Ways

There are many different ways to install Docker for Home Automation. Let's talk about some of the ways that you can install Docker on your home automation server.